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Friday, December 30, 2011

If you haven't been watching Happy Endings, then step or roll away from the computer and catch up on one of our favorite comedies of 2011. And when you're done, come on back so you can read our awesome interview with one-sixth of the Happy Endings ensemble and our girl crush Eliza Coupe.

Besides spilling on what's coming up for Jane and Co. on HE, Coupe also reveals who of the cast is "like f--ked up sunshine," and yes, there's some talk about her man hands…

Congrats! You're one of our breakout TV stars of 2011!
Eliza Coupe: You're so sweet. I don't know if that's the truth. I'll take it; let's get that rumor going. This has been a great year. It's been a weird year. I've said in a million different interviews, I seriously did not think this show was coming back [for a second season]. I chopped off all my hair in my bathroom in a really nice moment of crazy and did not think it was coming back.

Now you went from that to a full season pickup and a fancy spread in Entertainment Weekly.
I know, and I got to tell you, I am pretty certain that they enhanced my ass on that back shot. Everyone was like, "Your ass looks amazing." If you've ever met me, you know [my butt] is not my selling feature. I don't know what they did to make my butt look so good. I think what I was doing is I was really sticking it out there. I'm going to pretty much use that photographer and whoever lit that for everything I do.

Everyone usually talks about your legs. You've got some nice gams.
It's funny, I got a little self-conscious about the leg situation because somebody forwarded me this thread that somebody was writing that said, "Why does Eliza Coupe/Jane always have to show her legs off?" And somebody was like, "Don't be mean, she obviously just really likes her legs." And then I was like, "Oh my god, this is a thing." That and people are really getting excited about the fact that I have man hands. My hands are huge. When I was on Scrubs, Zach Braff used to make fun of them all the time. And now I made some list. I guess Jennifer Garner is on the top of the list for best hands and I'm fourth down. But that's for people who really like an NBA star's hands.

Do people stop you on the street now?
I've been recognized a couple times. I get people staring at me and I think in their heads they're thinking, "How do I know her? Did I go to high school with her?" I think it's not registering yet.

We've been on set enough times to know that the six of you are actually friends. Everyone wants to hang out with you guys! Do you think that's why people having taken such a liking to the show?
I think so. Everyone always talks about out chemistry, but we don't even think about it because we are literally having so much fun together. We're always texting and emailing each other while we're off. I think that's a big part of it. If you have a cast of people who are actually friends and getting along, then that's going to read. This year especially we've been able to put our friendship on camera, and I think that helps. It doesn't seem fake or contrived.

Describe everyone in the cast in one word.
This is the SATs and I took those many times, and I still did horrible! OK, Zach: laughter. He's just Mr. Laugh—his laugh is contagious. That's not one word. Damon is black sexy. And Pally…gay. Elisha's like f--ked up sunshine; I love it. And Casey reminds me of a crazy cousin or a crazy aunt that I always want to be around. Is that it? Is that all of them?

What was your favorite episode or scene this season so far?
Well, Max and Jane do this competition where we have to wear the ugliest outfit for as long as we can, and the other person picks it out. And we both stripped down to our underwear, and he and I had so much fun doing that. That was really fun. Another one is where Damon and I get to finally show how we used to dress in college, and Jane apparently wanted to be Gwen Stefani. And he's got cargo shorts and he's all about Jackass. We looked pretty great.

What else is coming up on Happy Endings?
We just shot the Michael McKean-Megan Mullally episode, and that was good. There's a really funny little storyline for Dave. I think [Zach] is so underrated on our show, I think he's so funny.

It's not easy to play the straight man in that group.
No, it's not! But what's funny is that this season there's really no straight person anymore. I feel like everyone is f--king off the rail. Everyone has gone completely off the rails, and I love that. And the writing on the show is so good. We all improv a lot, but we can't improv unless the writing is good—you can't improv off of nothing. Our writers are just amazing, and I think it's because of that that we're able to spark an idea in our head. But if it's not planted in our head by the writers to begin with, we wouldn't be able to do that. You can't improv off of bad writing. It's incredible writing that we're able to play with.

Well, you guys make us laugh each and every week. We even put Happy Endings in our dream Golden Globe nominations.
I love it. You know who you should toss in there? Eliza Coupe. I don't know if you know her. I hear she's got big hands.